


Bedtime Story

by Chelsea Frew (chelseafrew)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 10:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1092601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseafrew/pseuds/Chelsea%20Frew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry wakes up in the middle of the night to an empty bed. He goes to investigate why that is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bedtime Story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snsk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snsk/gifts).



> My first complete One Direction story!! Thanks to snsk for letting me play with one of your prompts (and thanks, too, for providing them!) Enjoy!! Happy Holidays!!

The room was bathed in moonlight when Harry awoke. He remained still, trying to listen to figure out what it might have been that woke him up, but all he could hear was silence. He reached a hand out to check if Louis was likewise awake, but all his hand met was a cool sheet. Harry was alone in their bed.

Confused, he sat up and looked in the direction of the en suite bathroom, but there was no light or movement coming from there. Worry began to mix in with the confusion as Harry slipped out of bed and pulled on his robe against the draft which seemed to constantly seep in through the windows of their old house.

He padded into the hall, turning left, heading in the direction of their daughter's room. As he neared the door--half-open, half-closed--he could hear two voices. He stopped just short of the door to listen, not wanting to interrupt.

"Can you tell me what the dream was about, baby?" Louis' voice whispered.

Tiny sobs came from the other person in the room. Harry couldn't keep himself from peeking inside. Louis sat in the rocking chair by the window, their young daughter in his arms. Flora's little face was buried in Louis' chest as Louis ran a hand gently through her chestnut curls. Harry quickly backed up before he could be seen, even while his heart hurt seeing his little girl in pain.

"Shh, baby, you're okay. You're safe," Louis crooned softly.

It took a moment, but her sobs turned to hiccups.

"That's it, honey. Deep breaths," Louis guided her.

Harry could hear Flora audibly following Louis' direction, and soon her hiccups came to an end.

"Good girl. There you go," Louis praised. "You chased the hiccups away. Now…. Do you think you can tell me what your dream was about?"

Flora pulled in a huge breath, then finally explained, "A huge monster was chasing me through a forest, and I couldn't find you or Daddy anywhere. I ran and I ran and I ran, but I couldn't find anybody. I was so scared, Papa."

Harry risked peeking in again and caught Louis holding Flora tight to his chest. "Daddy and I would never let anything get you," he was saying in her ear. "Not ever."

"Promise?" their five year old asked seriously.

"Promise."

Harry watched as Flora threw her little arms around Louis' neck, squeezing tight. Harry's chest filled with love for the both of them before he shifted out of view once more.

After a moment of silence, Harry heard Louis ask, "So, Floss, you think you could go back to sleep now?"

"Can you tell me a story?" she bargained.

Louis hesitated before pointing out, "It's pretty late, baby."

"Please, Papa?" she wheedled. Harry didn't need to see to know Flora was batting her emerald green eyes right up at Louis.

Louis folded like a house of cards. "Okay." 

"Yay!" Brown curls, green eyes, and an ability to get Louis Tomlinson to do whatever her heart desired--those Styles genes were powerful stuff.

"First, though, you get back in bed," Louis commanded gently.

Harry heard Flora's feet land on the floor and race the short distance to her bed. Louis' heavier footsteps followed, and it wasn't long before Louis asked, "Your choice or my choice?"

Flora took a moment to think. Harry and Louis always gave her the option of letting the stories they told her be from an idea of theirs or an idea of hers. In general, she let them pick, but on this night, she answered, "Mine!"

"Okay," Louis agreed. "What do you want to hear a story about?"

She paused for another moment, then declared, "I want you to tell me how you and Daddy met."

Harry smiled at the smile in Louis' voice as he said, "I think I can do that."

Harry slowly sank to the floor, drawing his knees up to his chest and leaning back against the wall. He settled in, not wanting to miss a word.

"I was eighteen years old, and I decided to try out for _The X-Factor_ ," Louis began.

"What's that?" Flora wondered out loud.

They hadn't told Flora a lot about their early days, though she did know that her fathers were in a band called One Direction with her Uncles Liam, Zayn, and Niall. Louis explained, "It was a contest to find out who the best singers in all of Britain were."

"Did you and Daddy win?" Flora asked expectantly.

"You're skipping ahead in the story," Louis scolded good-naturedly. "Be patient!"

Flora giggled, and Harry guessed Louis might have tickled her.

"Anyway," Louis went on. "Daddy was sixteen, and he also decided to try out for _The X-Factor_. We both made it through our first audition, and we got to go to boot camp."

"Boot camp?"

"We had to sing and dance for the judges, who would decide who would go on to the next stage of the contest and who would be going home."

"I like to dance," Flora interjected.

"And you're good at it, too," Louis assured her. "Not sure how that happened."

Harry smirked at the subtle insult to his dancing skills.

"So, did you meet Daddy at the boot camp?" Flora urged Louis to continue his tale.

"I did. On the fourth day. And guess where I met Daddy…."

"Did he knock you over while he was trying to dance?"

Harry couldn't win. Dissed by both his husband and his five year old in the space of about a minute. Nonetheless, he smiled at her guess.

Louis chuckled. "No. We met in the bathroom."

"The bathroom?" Harry could picture her little scrunched-up nose as she repeated what Louis had said.

"Yep," Louis confirmed. "And I knew right away that I loved him."

"You did?" Flora said in the dreamy way of most romantics.

"I did. He was so handsome. He had gorgeous green eyes and messy brown curls."

"Just like me!"

"Just like you," Louis agreed. "And when he smiled, he had dimples just like yours."

Flora giggled again. Harry would not have been surprised if Louis had pressed his fingers into her left dimple, which was just as deep as his own when she smiled.

"We talked for a long time the day we met," Louis went on. "And I remembered hearing him sing, too. I told him he was going to make it to the end of the contest and that he would be famous. I even made someone take our picture, and I got him to sign an autograph for me, so that I could say I had the very first one."

"You're silly, Papa."

"Hey, I was right," Louis protested. "He did get famous. I could sell that autograph for a lot of money."

"You still have it?" she asked incredulously.

"I sure do. But I would never really sell it," he whispered dramatically.

"So, did you and Daddy win?" Flora insisted upon knowing. Again.

"Nope. Neither of us made it through to the next part of the contest."

"So what happened next?"

"Uncle Simon said he thought it would be a great idea for Uncle Liam, Uncle Zayn, Uncle Niall, your daddy, and me to make a band together. So we did. We became One Direction."

"And you and Daddy fell in love then?"

"Yes, we did," Louis told her.

There was a moment of silence, then Louis' voice floated out to him again. "Okay, munchkin, it's time for you to go to sleep."

"Okay, Papa," Flora said through what sounded like a huge yawn.

Harry quickly pushed himself to his feet and gazed through the doorway in enough time to catch Louis pulling Flora's duvet up her chin and leaning over to press a kiss to her forehead. "Night, Floss," he whispered. "Sweet dreams."

"I love you, Papa," she whispered back sleepily.

"I love you, too, baby." Louis kissed her forehead one more time for good measure and stood to leave the room.

Harry hastily headed back in the direction of their bedroom, but halfway there, he felt a pair of arms snake around his waist. "Gotcha," Louis' voice rasped into his ear.

Harry stopped his forward motion and turned so he could put his arms around Louis' torso. "I woke up, and you weren't there," he explained, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Flora.

"Silly boy," Louis scolded with a smile. "Back to bed, then." He extricated himself from Harry's arms, catching Harry's hand as he did so, and pulled him with him down the hall and into their room.

Shucking his robe, Harry climbed back into bed next to Louis, who immediately wrapped him up in his arms again, situating them so Harry's back was pressed up against Louis' chest.

"So, how much did you hear?" Louis asked.

Harry cleared his throat, discomfited. "Um…. Almost all of it?"

Louis chuckled and pressed a kiss to the back of Harry's head.

"I knew that I loved you right away, too," Harry said softly. "You were the best-looking person I had ever seen. But that wasn't even the best part."

"Oh?"

"When we started talking, I realised I had never found anybody it was easier to talk to. And you made me feel like I could just be myself, right from the beginning."

"You did that for me, too," Louis assured him.

"You're so good with her," Harry told him, abruptly changing the subject.

"She's you," Louis said simply. "Makes it easy."

Harry twisted in Louis' arms so they could share a kiss. "I love you," he murmured, turning back over so he could once again press his back into Louis' chest.

"I love you, too," Louis returned.

With Louis back in his rightful place, Harry began to drift back to sleep.

He hadn't quite made it when a tiny voice came from the doorway. "Papa? Daddy?"

Both men rose in the bed to blink in their little girl's direction. "Hey there, sweet pea," Harry greeted her. "What's wrong?"

"Monster's still chasing me," she explained, clearly frustrated by this turn of events.

"Do you want to come sleep with us?" Louis inquired.

She nodded and didn't waste any time hurtling onto the bed, slotting herself right in the middle of the bed between her fathers.

While Louis got the blankets sorted out evenly among them all, Harry took care of wiping the tears from Flora's eyes. "You're okay, Floss. There's no way any monsters can get in here."

Flora eyed him closely. "Promise?" she asked him, just as she had done Louis earlier.

"Promise," Harry told her, leaning over to kiss her nose. "Now, you need to get to sleep. You have school in the morning."

"Okay, Daddy." She snuggled down deeper under the covers, and Louis and Harry both draped an arm over her protectively, Harry's arm resting on Louis' in the process.

They shared a contented look over their daughter's already relaxing body before Harry watched Louis' eyes slip closed. Smiling at his perfect little family, Harry let his eyes slip closed, too.

It was good to be right where you belonged.

End (17 December 2013)


End file.
